1st Birthday Recap

Here are some photos from Tess's birthday party that we had after Easter brunch. Has it already been two weeks? And is it possible that Finn's birthday is only three months away? Wow.

Tess loves her Mimi.

Finn looking at his "I Spy" card from Colleen and Jim.

Aunt Heather with the birthday girl.

Heather's bunny cake was as cute as it was delicious.

Big brother helping out.

I love his expression here.

Tess is like, "what's up?"

Apparently I was feeding her too slowly for

she took matters into her own hands.

I'm not a huge fan of mess/messy babies/messy face photos,

but it was *so* funny.

As was this. Thou shalt not let ice cream go to waste.

Tess got the hang of present-opening pretty quickly.

Love this photo of our little doll baby and "Aunt How".

Tess could hardly believe that Mama allowed Nana to

bring this pink princess-mobile into her home. Score!

Such FUN!

Good manners at an early age are important.

This includes reading cards before opening gifts.

Uh oh... When she inserts thumb, it's time to go home.

Thanks again to everyone who helped to make Tess's birthday SO special!

Gardening

Had to share Finn's self-styled ensem this morning: pajama top, check. Backwards shorts, check. Crocs with (matching) socks, check. And yet it kinda works.

(Also, I'm aware that we need some new plants and pots - this dead/broken one is so much fun to dig up!)

Birthday Beauty

I don't often get very emotional about this blog, but today! Today ... for some reason, maybe because this is the last first birthday we'll be celebrating until we have grandchildren (and please God, let that be a good 25 years from now) ... because the sun is shining and everyone we've seen out and about has been so sweet to my baby girl (the checkout lady at Target even sang Happy Birthday and none of the waiting customers seemed to mind) ... because I looked at her hair when we were on the swings this morning and she looked back at me just so ... well, this birthday is making me a little sentimental.

The day she was born, the nurses and hospital photographer told us she was one of the most alert babies they had ever seen. Sweet as sugar from the start!

This photo of when they first met never fails to make me teary (and smiley).

At her birthday party on Sunday after digging into that delicious Aunt Heather-made cake!

(More photos from that party to come.)

Happy FIRST Birthday to our lovely and sweet baby girl!

WE LOVE YOU, TESS!!

T minus 1

Desperate for a change of scenery on yet another rainy day, we headed up to Ithaca today for a stop at my *favorite* baby/cloth diaper store and lunch at Moosewood. Pretty much my favorite kind of day with my favorite almost-1-year old.

(Please note the tongue in above photo if you have not already.)

Tess isn't usually the easiest baby to dine out with but today she was a dream. She was flirting with all of the dude customers and the hostess brought several waitresses to our table to meet her and she smiled for all of them. This general goodwill and distribution of smiles to complete strangers on Tess's part was a rarity. Then of course I had to let it spill that tomorrow is her birthday and of course they gave her some free vanilla and lemon/gingersnap ice cream which we proceeded to eat with gusto. Yep, pretty much the perfect afternoon - the sun was even shining and the tulips were in bloom! Even though we would not want to live there, we love Ithaca!

Happy Easter

Today was Tess's first Easter. It was also the first Easter that Finn was cognizant of his basket, and the chocolatey goodness and presents residing in and around said basket. It was a great day and we are all worn out and full of yummy food!

Tess's bunny is her new favorite toy.

Chocolate rush RED ALERT

Sometimes their heads are so yummy I can HARDLY STAND IT

Preppy and ready for church!

I wuv him so much.

Wuv this picture too.

Miss Princess-puss.

Our sweet baby doll - she turns 1 the day after tomorrow!

(I'm admittedly getting a little emo about this.)

not quite getting it.

Me: Finn, Tess's birthday is next week.

Finn: (blank stare)

M: What would you like to get her for her birthday? Do you think she'd like a tea set?

F: I'd like a tea set.

We don't need fancy vacations

You know why? Because Finn is in perfectly content sitting in a gas station parking lot watching a bulldozer, excavator and dump truck moving dirt around while it's flurrying outside! (Note scone crumbs on coat.)

With that said, I would like a fancy vacation.

long day

When it's 40 damn degrees and raining and my children don't take afternoon naps, it's important to find humor wherever one is able.

[This morning]

Finn was standing at his kitchen. He went to the cupboard and got the rice cooker out. I asked him what he was making at "cooking class." (I've had cooking class for 7 of the past 10 Saturdays.) "Japanese pancakes," he said. "I'll add some flour, salt, and syrup. Perfect." Mick and Sue, maybe he's going to work on this recipe for you ... I'm not sure, but he was rather proud of himself.

[Late morning, Wegmans]

I took Finn to the store so that we could get out the house. Usually he eats his way through Nature's Marketplace all the way to the checkout and is then totally worn out. Of course today this didn't work. Anyway, I was shucking corn and this older gentleman said to Finn, "Hi partner." He walked away and Finn looked at me and whispered, "Is he a cowboy?" (This is a day after we saw a REALLY old guy with a cane leaving church and Finn asked me if he was a shepherd.)

[Naptime]

Heard from his crib: "Get me out of here. GET ME OUT OF HERE! BABY CAT IS MAD. Baby Cat wants to play with Mama Cat and Daddy Cat and Tess Cat." And so it went.

And now it's bedtime!

moo! baa!

Finn spent the night at Mimi and Papa's this week so Tess took the opportunity to play in "his" kitchen without any flack! She is learning new words every day. It just blows me away.

12 days til ONE!

It's not too soon to start counting down to her birthday, is it? WOW!

The other day, someone told me that Tess looks like a doll. Sometimes looking at photos of her, I have to agree. In person she's not exactly as sedate as she looks in photos, but she's definitely a sweetie pie.

Pantera Bread

Tess loves coming to Panera while Finn is at school because it's full of senior citizens who stop to fuss over her cuteness. Also, bagel.

my favorite things

Finn has a knack for lyrics (must get it from his dad). I started singing songs from the Sound of Music at bedtime a couple of weeks ago and recently he surprised me by singing all three verses himself. I was amazed that he agreed to be filmed singing this morning - I asked him if we could show Granddad what a beautiful voice he has!

tourney time

Tess wore her Duke jumper (thanks Aunt Sue!) faithfully throughout the conference until the day we lost - she was under the weather and slept through the game in pajamas. Aww. Don't blame us, though - it just wasn't Duke's year. We are SOOO excited for the game tonight. Go Butler Bulldogs! They probably deserved to win last year so we're really pulling for them now.

I've been slacking lately due to various sicknesses - Finn had sniffles for about a month and Tess had a double ear infection/cold/teething - gah! - so sleep was hard to come by for most of March. I'm happy to report that everyone is now well, it's 62 degrees outside and the tulips appear to be coming up. Hooray for real spring.

and just like that...

...the ground was again covered with snow. This week the weather has finally really started to get to me, but Finn - thankfully - doesn't mind. This despite the fact that he's up every night for 1-2 hours coughing, but the pediatrician doesn't have a lot of great advice and we don't want to medicate him for something that will hopefully go away once it warms up a bit. In any case, he's spending a couple of days with his grandparents happily moving snow around with his (and Andrew's and Dale's) trusty trucks while Tess and I are home trying to get as much sleep as possible.

(Is that a new backhoe I spy?)

SPRING!

It's 40 degrees therefore we're at the Park! A little brisk but that's A-ok...

Tessie's first bow!

little irish

Same onesie, different baby:

March 2009

Finn, 7 months

March 2011

Tess, 11 months

It cracks me up how different they are - our sweet, solid boy and our equally sweet, but slightly less mellow, petite little girl. (When she's wearing a particularly cute outfit, Finn still calls her "Ma cherie Tess." Pam taught him that.)

They are currently resting up for our big night out - by which I mean, we're going out for a walk! In the sun! And maybe to eat some meat. I think Finn just woke her though, as his idea of Quiet Time means jumping in his crib, yelling at Ba to "MOVE THE MOBILE CRANE and get the skid steer out from down cellar." Yelling. Yeah, she's up.

One more thing - the other day I picked Finn up from school and his teacher was excited that he is starting to spell! He did a painting and she was labeling the colors and he said, "Blue, b-b-B! Red, rrrr-R!" It's such fun watching him learn new things literally every day - I can't believe he'll be THREE this summer.

playing together

Thank heaven the kids have started amusing each other.

The funniest person in the world is her brother.

And every morning he can hardly wait to see her.

On this day, however - all she really wanted was his tractor.

Finn loves this particular tractor because it has "duals."

"Maybe if I just grab it, he won't even notice."

"Unnh! I almost have it!"

"Oh well, this little plastic present is cool."

"I will get that tractor.

Did I mention that ALL of my top teeth are coming in?"

It's good that Tess is learning to stand up for herself.

In the end, I'm just happy that they love each other.

Boat

Finn drew this boat the other day without any help! I have to say, it looks pretty boat-like.

PS. Welcome to the new Wagoner baby Celia Grace! Shawna and Shawn we are excited to see photos of your baby girl.

When toddlers open netflix

Ash Wednesday

My friend Stephanie reminded me about 10 am kids mass this morning so Finn and I went and he was great - he even clapped after the song at communion and beamed at Fr. Lou after he blessed him. This kid, I tell you.

Having never been to mass on Ash Weds with kids I didn't know about the stickers they give the little ones (instead of ashes) so this is probably a common occurrence - it's very sweet!

Grizzly

Finn and I took a little road trip with Papa today and stopped at a mega-huge tool store called Grizzly on the way. Finn loves it and knows what most of the tools are... I meanwhile am (cluelessly) wandering behind at a safe distance looking for an employee who might direct us to the nearest DQ!